Hands of Fate
by taylortot
Summary: In the wake of Izumi's disappearance, the Society begins to move against Mitsuki and Hiroomi, demanding that they turn over Akihito and Mirai if they want to maintain their fragile alliance with the Spirit World Warriors. Meanwhile, Akihito begins to feel and act very strange, and fear sets in once his youmu markings start appearing on his body. Set after the anime.
1. Restless

A/N: Hello! This is my first multi-chaptered knk fanfic! I'm actually really excited about it, and I have a lot of ideas in store, so I hope that you guys enjoy it! This is sorta just an imagined sequel to the anime, because I need a sequel ha. Thanks for taking your time to check it out!

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Chapter 1

Restless

Rain patters softly against the pavement, staining the shoulders of her pink cardigan and leaving her hair dripping in a wet curtain around her. Her breath trembles in her mouth as she pushes up the bridge of her red framed glasses and reaches for the doorknob of her apartment. Her body aches; it's been a while since she's exerted herself so much. A relief flavored sigh escapes her lips as she pushes the door open and steps inside, the warmth rushing around her to give relief from the cold left behind by the rain.

"I'm home!" she calls, kicking clumsily out of her shoes, nearly slipping in her wet stockings on the tiled floor.

Inami Sakura pokes her head out of the bedroom door. "You're wet, Mirai."

"Yes," she replies, shivering as she peels her drenched sweater from her shoulders and hangs it up by the door. "It's raining outside. But look what I just got!" She pulls a rough looking stone embedded with jade crystals from her pocket and holds it up proudly. "Next month's rent!"

Sakura blinks at her and then retreats back into the bedroom. "That's good. There are leftovers in the fridge, by the way."

That's good, because Mirai is starving. She places the youmu stone on the counter and wobbles a bit as she bends over to check the fridge. A smile splits across her face when she sees that there are indeed leftovers, and they've already been put on a plastic wrapped plate so all she has to do is pop it in the microwave. Sakura may not say much, but she's a wonderful friend with a penchant for tenderness, and the prepared plate speaks wonders.

"Thanks!" Mirai shouts as she pulls it out and shuts the fridge. Her fingers are a little shaky from the anemia, but she's able to press the right buttons on the microwave without too much trouble. While it's warming up, she changes out of her damp clothes and slips into something dry and comfortable.

"Say, Sakura? How did you manage rent while I was away?" She hasn't really thought about it before, but now that she's on the subject of rent it makes her curious. Mirai had been away from this physical world for several months - nearly half a year! - and she'd only just returned about a week ago. After all the catching up they did, Mirai knows that Sakura works for the Shindous but that's not nearly enough to make rent and buy groceries. Well, her family is wealthy. . . "Did your parents send the money?"

Sakura emerges from the bedroom again in her pajamas this time, her violet eyes suddenly very sober. "No."

The microwave fills the brief silence in the room as Mirai tries to contemplate other options. She twists the ring on her pinky finger absentmindedly and leans against the counter for support, looking lost in thought. Sakura blinks at her again and then sighs.

"I guess he didn't tell you then," she murmurs.

Mirai perks up immediately and the timer on the microwave goes off. "Who didn't tell me what?"

"Kanbara," Sakura says, tugging on the end of her hair, appraising Mirai blatantly, as the bespectacled girl's reactions to Kanbara Akihito's name are very interesting. "Kanbara helped me pay the rent."

Mirai's heart turns over funny in her chest at even the mention of his name before swelling impossibly. The room is quiet enough that she can hear how fast it is pounding in her chest as the blood rushes in her ears and she presses a hand over her thrumming heart. Her amber eyes drop to the floor. "He did?"

The Inami girl sighs as if Mirai is hopeless, a smile hiding in her voice. "That can't surprise you, can it? He helped me out a lot. When you were gone."

Those words ring in Mirai's head. _When you were gone_. Her shoulders shake a bit, heart clenching. Though she's back now - back for good (she feels it in the depths of her bones that the next time she leaves this place it will be in death) - it hurts to hear about how her absence affected those she cared about. "You guys have nothing in common," Mirai says with a slight smile.

"We have _you_ in common."

She glances back up at her roommate. "Sakura. . ."

"You should eat your food before it gets cold," Sakura says in dismissal. "I'm going to bed."

Mirai sighs after the bedroom door shuts and extracts her plate from the microwave. It's hot so she has to let it sit for a moment and her stomach growls as she places it on the table and takes a seat. Through her hunger, her thoughts linger on the conversation and then her heart is turning funny in her chest again because Akihito's face is imprinted there against the backs of her eyelids, with that smile and those ridiculous cowlicks.

She doesn't remember much from the past two months, really, just glimpses of Akihito in a sunny place with the sound of his laughter in the air. A dream, somewhere deep inside him, where she had been existing since he took Beyond the Boundary back into himself. He had the dreams too, small things, he told her. The sun reflecting off her glasses, how her hand curved into his, how the blanket they sat on was warm and her shoulder pressed against his as they laid there. She wished she could remember more, because for two months, those hadn't just been dreams to her.

She spoons the food in front of her and blows on it, making the steam waver. Akihito has been so careful with her since she came back. Barely touching her, and when he does, his fingers tread as if she is made of the most fragile porcelain. Like he's. . .scared. And if he's scared now, she feels her stomach twist sickeningly at the thought of what it was like when she wasn't here. She tries to imagine herself as if their positions had been reversed and the thought of losing him is so repugnant that her eyes prickle.

"I won't lose him, or Sakura, ever again," she murmurs to herself before taking her first bite. She would protect them, so that she would never have to feel a pain like that. Losing Yui had been hard enough.

She's nearly through with her dinner when her phone vibrates from where its plugged into the kitchen wall. There's a not entirely unwelcome pressure in her chest as she opens the text message.

_Hey._

"K-Kanbara," she whispers, staring at the single word, trying to make sense of everything he didn't say. Her fingers tremble over the keyboard - she has to reply! Or he'll jump to wrong conclusions! - as she tries to figure out what words are stuck in her mind but the phone vibrates in her hand again and he's sent another message.

_Please tell me you're still here._

She glances at the clock which tells her its nearly ten at night, and then she knows what to say. _Bad dreams? _she types.

His response comes almost immediately. _I'd have to fall asleep to have bad dreams._

_What's wrong? _She frowns.

_Nothing._

"Honestly," she grumbles to herself. _You're a terrible liar._

_Sorry. _He sends. _Could you distract me, Kuriyama?_

Mirai holds her phone tightly in her hands, wishing that instead of distracting him, she could comfort him. Even though he lives within a mile of her doorstep, he seems impossibly far away right now. _Sakura says that you helped pay the rent on my apartment while I was gone._

_Yeah. We couldn't let it go. _His words are so much more melancholy than usual and she hates that. When the sun sets, the darkness seems to crawl into his head and settle there and she knows she can drive it away, but the silence of his lonely apartment is louder than her soundless text messages.

_Thank you. _She types it with all the gratitude in her heart, tears at the corners of her eyes.

_You're welcome. I bet you look real cute with your glasses right now._

She rolls her eyes, but admittedly, she's holding back a laugh. He's such a nerd, she thinks amusedly, and his come-ons are about as blunt as a balloon but she loves him that way. _I'm not wearing my glasses. _It's a lie, of course. She hasn't taken them off yet.

_Don't tease me, Kuriyama, that's not nice._

This time, she does laugh._ I broke them while I was youmu hunting tonight._

It's a one word reply this time. _Kuriyama._

_Senpai._

The phone promptly rings in her hand and she's completely deadpan when she answers it. "They were all twisted out of shape. I could not salvage them," she speaks into the receiver.

When he replies, she suddenly feels at ease, completely at peace with the world, and the warmth that brushes her seems so palpable and real. "If you won't stop this ceaseless torture I may have to hijack the neighbor kid's bike and rush to your doorstep. You wouldn't want me to become a criminal, would you?"

"I'm more worried about the poor kid's bike," she replies smartly.

He takes on an injured tone. "How cruel. And here I thought you loved me."

Suddenly, there is a nervous jitter in her stomach, even though she has never been more sure of anything in her entire life. "I do." Her voice is sober and warm and she closes her eyes and pretends that he is inches away.

She can hear his abrupt intake of breath. "You can't just say things like that over a phone line," he says slowly, sounding pained.

"You already knew, Senpai."

"That doesn't change anything," he insists. He takes a deep breath and exhales. "Tell me again. Tell me you're really here." Why does he sound so terrified, so lonely? She wants to take his hand and press it to the fast paced beating of her heart and prove it to him.

"I'm here," she says softly, and she can smile while she says it because it's true.

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Mitsuki knows that she should be in bed, but she feels restless, like her stomach is heavy and twisting, and she finds a lonely sort of comfort in pacing the halls of the Nase manor though it is after midnight. The floor is cold under her bare feet. She should probably be wearing socks - even if it is kind of warm for the usual winter weather, but her direction is aimless and she doesn't care to make her way back to her room just yet.

A sliver of light at the end of the corridor catches her eye. She raises an eyebrow. "What is _Aniki_ still doing up?" she murmurs to her youmu familiar, Yakiimo, who sits perched on her shoulder. She pads forward, feeling a crease form between her eyebrows, and presses her ear to the door.

There's the quiet murmuring of a song playing beyond the door, but other than that, there is silence. She is only just beginning to wonder what could possibly have him up so late when the knob under her hand is being twisted and the door opens to reveal her brother standing there. His mouth pops open in surprise.

"Mitsuki? What are you doing up?"

She hates the blush on her face and she backs up into the shadows so he can't see how suddenly flustered she is at being caught. "I could ask the same thing about you."

He scratches at the back of his neck and he looks completely nonchalant - even a little pleased that she's here - but that can't mask the tired bags under his emerald eyes. Ever since Izumi disappeared, Mitsuki has had to watch Hiroomi shoulder the responsibilities of being the head of their clan. He doesn't sleep as much as he should, and she's noticed how his appetite has decreased. Hiroomi makes her uncomfortable; he's a pervert and she spends a lot of time grieving over the fact that out of everyone in the world, she got him as her brother.

Still, that doesn't stop her from worrying about him. She would rather die than admit it, but she always worries about him.

"Clan duties took up a little bit more time this afternoon than I anticipated," he explains to her after a moment of silence, reaching a finger toward Yakiimo, who sniffs it and turns away. Hiroomi forces a smile as he turns his eyes to Mitsuki's. "I'm just finishing up homework, is all. Though, I must say I'm touched that my little sister was worried enough to check on me in the middle of the night."

She scowls and draws further away. "Don't twist things around. I was up walking and happened to see your light on."

"So you pressed your body to my bedroom door for what other reason then?" He's smirking at her now, but he still looks so tired and she wishes he would stop with this masquerade and talk to her like a normal person for once. She knows that this is his defense, that he's trying to protect her, but she doesn't need to be protected. She needs to help, but he just doesn't _see_ that.

"You're disgusting."

"I am merely playing the role of a loving big brother. You look very cute when you get teased."

She scoffs at him and starts marching off down the hall. "I'm going to bed."

"Wait," he calls, sounding serious suddenly. It's because of the change in his voice that she pauses.

"What?" she snaps without turning her shoulders.

"Why aren't you asleep yet, Mitsuki?" he asks in a voice that seems reminiscent of her childhood with him. There's the brother who doesn't make her uncomfortable. There's the brother she relies on.

The tension in her shoulders eases a little. "Just restless," she murmurs.

"Is there anything you want to talk to me about?"

This time, she peeks over her shoulder to catch a glimpse of his face, and it matches the softness of his voice, the way she knew it would. When she sees him like this, she misses the days that they didn't have to worry about where Izumi disappeared to, what it meant , how the Society was breathing down their necks and observing them as if they were under a microscope. She wants to be five years old again, with a brother who spends more time smiling and a sister who doesn't shut the world out.

"No," she mutters. "'Night."

"Sweet dreams," he says, and if he didn't sound so sincere, she would have been irritated by the phrase.

He doesn't stop her again and when she's tucked into bed with Yakiimo curled up on the pillow next to her, she whispers to her little friend, "I have a bad feeling." She thinks that's why she feels so restless lately.

The youmu cuddles in closer to her and she strokes his back. "We'll have to keep an eye out for anything suspicious, Yakiimo." Her hand runs down his tail and she spends the rest of the night staring at the ceiling with a weight in her stomach.


	2. Fragile

A/N: Hey! I'm back with chapter 2! I think I already know where I wanna go with the next chapter, so that one may be up sooner than this one was. Thank you to those who have favorited, alerted, and reviewed! Wow it really means a lot to me! I hope you enjoy this chapter too!

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Chapter 2

Fragile

He wakes with a gasp, his chest heaving with a shortness of breath, the locks of his golden hair plastered flat against his forehead, damp with sweat. His hand tangles in the fabric of his shirt as he sits up abruptly and something clunks to the floor.

Akihito stares at his bed sheets and forces deep breaths in and out to smooth the erratic pacing of his heart. Something wet slides down his cheek, but he brushes it away and runs a hand through his disheveled hair. It was just a dream, right? He can't even recall most of it, but they're all the same these days anyway, so he searches for his phone - so that's what fell off his bed - and pulls up her number.

He has to be sure. Usually, he'd settle for a text message, and he knows that she's sleeping but the sun is starting to peek over the horizon and he's not going to be able to function until he knows for certain that she's safe. His heart clenches in his chest as the phone rings and goes to voicemail, panic setting in. Relentless, he redials her number and holds his breath. He begins to feel lightheaded and sick to his stomach when her voice message speaks up again.

"_Mirai_." He says her name like a prayer, like a plea for salvation, and dials once more. His hands are shaking and he think he might throw up, but then there is a click and a groan on the other end of the line. All at once the anxiety eases.

"Kanbara?" Her voice is groggy and unpleased. "Do you even know what -"

"I'm sorry," he cuts her off, gripping the phone with both hands, allowing the relief to pull his mouth into a smile. His eyes slip shut as he listens to the rustle of her blankets, the even lull of her breathing. "I just needed to make sure."

There are more faint rustling noises and he imagines that she's sitting up, her sunlit eyes droopy with sleep. He's never seen her with bed hair before. It probably looks really crazy. She probably looks really cute.

"Was it about me?" she asks in a tone that isn't so harsh or sleepy. She sounds soft and regretful and he hates that - he doesn't want her to feel regret over those choices because he saw, in those brief moments between the months that separated them, how happy she was. How sure she was about her choices. And he was frustrated with those choices but how is that anything different from what he would have done, had he been in her place?

"You don't have to worry about it, Kuriyama-san," he tells her gently. "It was just a dream."

"I do worry, Senpai," she retaliates.

He sighs. "You should go back to bed, yeah? I kept you up late last night. There's still a few hours before school starts."

When she huffs over the line, he can detect her frustration easily, and he's surprised that she lets it go. "Fine. I'll see you at the train station, okay?"

"Hmm," he replies and he wants to add 'I love you' to the end of that, but even though she knows and he's confessed it before, the words die on his tongue before he can say them. He doesn't want her to worry her anymore than he already has. "Be careful on the way; the rain was supposed to freeze overnight so it's going to be slippery."

"Yes, Senpai." She pauses, and he hears the hesitation in her voice. "I'm here, you know." It's small, the reassurance but it makes him feel better. He's glad that she sounds at peace, content to say the words, instead of being upset that it's all he seems to want to hear from her. "I'm not going anywhere anymore. I'm here."

His eyes prickle and he smiles as he rubs at them. "Yeah."

They don't say goodbye, because both of them shy away from the meaning of the word, so instead, Mirai sighs and promises to see him soon before hanging up. Akihito drops the phone to the mattress and then rubs his face, as if doing so would erase the lingering memories of the nightmare. It doesn't work, predictably, so he hops into the shower and takes his time.

Once dressed and ready for school, he stretches back out on his bed and stares at the ceiling, debating on whether or not he should eat. He doesn't particularly feel hungry right now, especially with the bad taste in his mouth from the dream, despite having brushed his teeth. But the hunger will be uncomfortable and he doesn't want to worry Mirai, so he opts for toast and a glass of juice before making his way slowly to the train station.

A part of him was worried that she wouldn't be there - a stupid part of him - but any anxiety he seemed to be retaining vanishes in this moment and his usual clumsy smile widens across his face when he sees her sitting on the bench alone. Her scarf is pulled up to her nose and she hasn't quite noticed him yet, but he sighs at the way her glasses sit on her face, at the way her hair curves softly around the red frames.

She notices him when he sits on the bench, close enough that his knee knocks against hers. It's still early for their train, but he guesses that she didn't go back to sleep like he wanted her too after their phone call this morning.

"Hi," he says simply, smiling at her as his chest swells. She has this special way of looking at him through those glasses. It's like she is seeing the heart of him, who he is, past the surface, past the labels and stereotypes and the unavoidable threat of his demon. Her honey colored eyes see him as a person, as someone worthy of love and attention, and before her no one had ever looked at him with such tenderness before.

"Good morning, Senpai," she says pleasantly. Her breath puffs out of her mouth in a frosty cloud and he thinks he would like to kiss her but he doesn't know how.

"No Sakura today?" he asks to distract himself.

"She's meeting up to walk to school with Ai-chan today," she tells him, an unexpected blush glowing on her cheeks. He grins ( how can she be _that cute_; does she have any idea at all?) and leans toward her a bit. No physical contact, he tells himself, but ah, he can smell her almond shampoo from here and her warmth is real as it presses against him and he is happy.

"What are you so flustered about?" he asks curiously.

"N-n-nothing!" she insists, resisting the urge to wipe her glasses.

He surprises her by taking one of her hands - the one wrapped in a bandage - and holds it with the utmost care. She blinks at him, wishing that he'd crush his skin against hers, that he'd hold her hand tight and hard because she is so, so desperate to be touched by him.

"Sakura did it to give us some time alone, didn't she?" he murmurs, his thumb running softly over her knuckles.

She swallows and feels the heat on her face from her embarrassment. "She's not v-very subtle, is she?"

Akihito laughs and meets her gaze. "At least she approves."

"Approves?"

"Of me. Of. . . of us."

It'd only been a week since she'd returned; neither one of them were still very accustomed to. . .well, whatever it was they had. Both of them blush deeply and Mirai looks at her knees as if they are the most important things in the world, but her fingers curl around his hand and they stay that way until their train arrives.

Once they get to school, Akihito walks Mirai to her homeroom and leans in to kiss her forehead when they think no one is watching. She treasures the way his mouth presses to her skin, wonders what it would feel like if it was her mouth instead of her forehead. It's only been a week, she reasons, as she takes her seat at her desk, and she hasn't been able to be with him as much as either of them would like, not alone in a way that leaves a kissing kind of mood at least.

Since Mirai returned, she'd been surrounded by all of her friends and her alone time with Akihito was diminished into alone time in public spaces. Which suited her fine! She loves spending time with him, no matter where they are or what they are doing. He is the only factor that matters. And yet. . .

She wants to kiss him. Terribly badly. Would he even, if he was given the chance? He seems so wary of her, too gentle, and she is not fragile. Akihito is the last person who would ever break her; doesn't he understand that? There is no danger to them anymore; they are free to do what they want without having to worry about other things. She does not have to choose between life and death anymore, and he does not have to suffer through her choices. They can be happy! And she is, oh God knows how she is.

But is asking for a kiss really too much?

With a groan, she drops her chin into her hands and stares forward, trying very hard not to think about anything at all.

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"What are you doing here?" Mitsuki asks, her voice blank with surprise. Hiroomi looks up from his laptop where he is sitting at the table of their clubroom. There are tired bags under his eyes, but he smiles. She wishes he wouldn't.

"Getting some work done," he tells her vaguely as she places her lunch tray across from him and takes a seat. The fact that he makes no comment at all on how his "little sister is joining him for lunch" disturbs her and even though she is also running low on sleep, she detects the tension in his shoulders as he turns his eyes back to his computer screen.

"What kind of work?" she asks as she picks at her food. The line of his mouth is hard and then she shakes her head and averts her eyes, irritated that she is looking at his mouth.

"Paper work," he murmurs.

She's sick of these delicate answers. "What's the paperwork _for_?"

His fingers pause over the keys and he looks back up at her; she can feel how his eyes appraise her expression and when she finds the courage to return his gaze, she doesn't like the look there on his face. "You're very curious about me lately, Mitsuki."

Her scowl is instant and lethal. "I'm not curious about you, idiot, I'm curious about what kind of work is so urgent that you have to give it attention at school."

He purses his lips and turns his eyes back to the computer. "It's nothing you need to worry about, little sister."

She's about to demand that her last name is Nase, and it damn well is her worry, too, but the door swings open and Akihito wanders in casually, looking not at all surprised to see the two siblings there.

"Hey," he greets in his usual manner, raising a suspicious eyebrow at Hiroomi, who hadn't looked up at his entrance. "What's with the dead beat over there?" His question is directed at Mitsuki who merely sighs and begins to eat her lunch. If Akihito hadn't come in, she may have been able to wring answers out of her brother, and she tries not to be frustrated at the half-youmu boy but she is.

"Is that any way to address your senpai, Akkey?" Hiroomi questions, still focused on his computer screen.

Akihito rolls his eyes, still suspicious. "You never do work at school, so what gives?"

With a heavy sigh, Hiroomi clicks a few things on his laptop and then shuts it. "I won't be getting any of it done with you two around. Don't expect to see me at club." He wanders out of the room with his bag and his laptop, his scarf fluttering behind him slightly as he leaves.

"He's been weirder than usual lately," Akihito observes as he takes a seat next to Mitsuki.

She takes another bite of her lunch. "It's making me nervous," she confesses grudgingly, uneasy with speaking so openly about the way she feels, but Akihito is her friend and the next best thing to Kuriyama Mirai. "Where's Mirai?"

"She's getting her lunch now," he says and Mitsuki marvels at the way his face softens ever so slightly at the mere mention of the blood wielding girl. "What're you so nervous about?"

She glances up to meet his gaze and as she chews her last bite, she mulls over the thought of confiding in him. Who else did she have? Akihito seems like the best choice since he understands Hiroomi almost better than herself.

"Something just feels off," she mutters. "And _Aniki_ is always staying up late, always off doing some sort of work that he won't tell me about. I have a bad feeling, about this stuff."

"That is weird," Akihito agrees. Hiroomi is hardly the type to keep Mitsuki from things she wants to know, considering how desperate he is to have her love him. "Have you looked into that stuff yourself?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean - "

The door swings open and Mirai paces into the room with her bowl of udon noodles held very carefully on the tray with her hands. Akihito's chest tightens and he pulls out the chair beside him, unable to help the goofy smile that crosses his face. Mitsuki thinks that he's never looked happier than when he's with Kuriyama-san; she notes the way he lights up when she enters the room. _He deserves this_, she thinks, _he's been through so much and he deserves this_.

"Hello, Mitsuki-senpai!" Mirai greets as she takes the seat. "I'm sorry for interrupting your conversation."

Mitsuki smiles at the bespectacled girl, aware that Akihito has yet to take his eyes off of her. "No worries, Kuriyama-san. It wasn't that important."

"Eh? But weren't you talking about Hiroomi-senpai? Your voices were carrying down the hall a bit. He's been acting strange lately." So Mirai had noticed it too.

Of course, Mitsuki is sick of focusing on her brother - all he seems to be doing to her lately is giving her anxiety, and when she's with her friends, she doesn't want to feel that way. It's best to consider Akihito's idea of looking into _Aniki's_ work herself and leave it at that, so she says, "Like I said, it wasn't that important."

Akihito mumbles something about how he's not buying it, and Mirai smothers a chuckle at her words, but they lull into a pointless conversation that makes all three of them feel as if they are normal people with no connection to the Spirit World whatsoever.


	3. Finally

A/N: This is my favorite chapter so far, I think; we're moving right along as tentatively scheduled lol. I love writing this story so much wow. Um, I'm not fishing for reviews or anything, but if you read this, it would be so great to hear from you!

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Chapter 3

Finally

For the first time since being reunited, they are truly alone.

Mirai feels restless and a little bit embarrassed - why is she still wearing the stupid maid costume? Ai-chan and Ayaka-san had left to go out for dinner after Mirai had finished her modeling work that afternoon. They'd asked if she would be willing to watch the shop for them while they were gone, to close it at the appropriate time, and she agreed.

Akihito didn't seem to mind it either - he'd tagged along to watch her work today - but he wasn't looking at her the way she hoped he would. She is still in costume - doesn't that appeal to him at all? Isn't that why he buys the photos of her? It sucks that she doesn't know what to say to him. Anticipating a moment where it's just them and now that the moment has arrived her tongue is silent and her heart is erratic.

"If you want to go and change, I can close up the shop, Kuriyama-san," Akihito says, breaking her frantic thoughts. She clutches suddenly at the choker on her throat and looks to him, her blush beginning to make its appearance. His eyes widen at her hectic look, and her chest hurts because her heart is beating so fast as he quickly becomes adorably confused. "What's with the look?"

"U-um," she stutters, dropping her eyes to the table. Why doesn't he get it? It's too embarrassing to say out loud! "S-Senpai? When we're a-alone, could you. . ." She swallows thickly, feels how hot her face has become. "Could you c-call me by my f-f-first name?"

She peeks at him over her glasses to see him jerk back in surprise, feels her heart skip a beat when his cheeks redden in color. Her hand clenches harder against her chest and she wonders why loving him hurts so much. Is it supposed to feel so painful, here, where her heart is? Does he feel it so strongly too?

"S-Sure," he says finally, eyes fixated on her. "And you ought to do the same, uh, you know. Mirai."

Goosebumps raise all over her skin; his mouth caresses her name the way she always hoped it would. "O-okay," she replies, her blush crawling toward her forehead. "Um. I'll go change." She rises from the chair she occupies and begins to make her way back into the photo studio where her school clothes sit folded on a table.

"Wait." He reaches toward her hand as if to grab it before he also stands and lets his hand fall back to his side. Akihito is really tall, she thinks, curling her hands over the hem of the fluffy skirt. She wants him to lean toward her; she can't kiss him unless he bends down in some way, no matter how far she stretches on her toes. Why isn't he touching her? He was going to grab her hand, but he hesitated. She's so frustrated - she doesn't know how much longer she can stand being treated like eggshells.

"What?" she asks, trying not to scowl as she meets his gaze.

His cheeks are rosy; he scratches the back of his neck. "Uh, well I just wanted to say that you look really cute. In that outfit, I mean."

"Are you being perverted again?" Her voice is accusatory but an incredibly flustered part of her hopes that he is.

She watches his face go blank for a moment, eyes flickering as he sees something that isn't in the moment and he blushes, grinning as he re-focuses back on her. "Well, I wasn't until you said anything."

"Then. . ." her voice wavers and she has to dig down deep to pull the words out of her. "Then, why don't you kiss me?" She leans back against the table, dropping her eyes, feeling like her heart is going to explode right out of her chest. "You haven't even tried," she says softly, growing louder with each word. "Not since I've been back, and I. . .I want to kiss you! I want you to touch me! I'm not breakable, I -"

He grimaces, eyebrows drawing in sharply and she knows that he's upset. "I know!" he exclaims, pressing his hands to the table on either side of her. "I know you're not; if anyone is going to break here, it's going to be me," he says and something in his voice turns forlorn and she aches at the sound. "Two times, I reached for you and you splintered into pieces both times. And it's not an excuse but I can't afford to lose you again."

The walls are down now. She grabs one of his hands and presses it over her chest, where she can feel her heart beating the strongest. "I'm here," she tells him earnestly, placing her hand over top of his, holding him against her hard. "I promise I'm not a dream; please don't be afraid."

He smiles painfully at her, leaning toward her slightly, hand still pressed to her heart. She is embarrassed that he can feel how fast it is beating, but when she reaches forward and wraps her arms around him, placing her head against his chest, the pace of his heart matches hers exactly. Mirai grins and clutches him close, sighing when he returns the gesture with just as much fervor.

His arms are tight around her, binding her against him so that she can barely breathe. She doesn't want to breathe. She hopes he leaves bruises. It's the first time he's felt so solid and real against her since she returned; the first time his hands hold her like she is flesh and bone and not glass. His mouth presses to the side of her head before he drops his forehead to her shoulder and sighs shakily against her. His breath is hot and she shivers.

Mirai isn't sure how long they stand there - could have been seconds, could have been months - before he finally releases her. She holds on for a few moments longer, and when her arms finally drop to her sides, neither one of them tries to step away. He smells like clean cotton and the spice of his soap, that distinct youmu scent underlying it all. Though usually her senses scream danger with the smell of a youmu, she is utterly at peace and she is so happy.

"How about you change before Ayaka-san and Ai-chan come back?" he suggests softly. "They shouldn't be much longer."

She tries not to smile against his shirt. "S-Sure," she agrees, turning around to leave before remembering something. The blush is inevitable. "Um. . .A-Akihito?" she mumbles gently, staring at the floor. "Could you undo the buttons back there?"

"Y-Yeah," he replies. His fingertips touch the top of the costume, sliding over her skin just fractionally and she holds her breath as he quickly loops the buttons out of their holes. She steps away and flashes him a smile over her shoulder as she walks toward the photo studio.

"Thank you. I'll be right out!"

Mirai changes as fast as she can manage without tripping over herself and contemplates what she should do next. After donning her pink cardigan, she sits on the bench next to the folded maid costume and stares at her phone. It's a Friday night, spending time with Akihito isn't a bad idea, right? Sakura would understand, wouldn't she?

It doesn't take long to convince herself - Mirai shoots the text to her roommate and smiles as she pockets the device, making her way back to the front of the store. Ayaka-san stands in the hallway talking to a bright-eyed Akihito when she emerges from behind the curtain and Ai-chan grins.

"Thank you for looking after the store, Kuriyama-san," Ayaka-san says in her graceful way.

Mirai smiles and waves her hands in front of her. "It wasn't a big deal. I hope you both had a good time."

When both Mirai and Akihito have said their goodbyes, they slip into their coats and out into the street. A memory assaults her when she sees the snow falling, the dark grey sky that is fading into night, and her chest suddenly feels tight and cold. Ducking her chin into her scarf, she tries to shut out what she recalls of her lonely days Beyond the Boundary, how empty the nights felt when she had existed there, and instead reaches for Akihito's hand.

He glances at her in surprise but then grins and threads his fingers through hers, the tips of his ears glowing red. She smiles and forgets the awful memory because he holds her hand tight and she is so happy that he's learning to trust himself with her.

"So," he says. "Where to?"

Her shoes slip a little in the snow, but his hand anchors her. "I texted Sakura. She doesn't expect me home anytime soon."

He smiles, his eyes glittering with sudden excitement. "Dinner, then? I'll pay."

Something in her stomach jumps. "Yes please."

::::

Mitsuki does as Akihito suggested. Instead of lying around her house eating snacks and watching movies on this particular Friday night, she decides to do some digging. If Hiroomi won't tell her what's going on, then she's going to figure it out for herself. Besides, she's willing to do anything to alleviate the strange ache of anxiety in her stomach. Something is not right here, and she's desperate to understand. Better to be prepared, anyway, than to not see it coming.

Her best bet, she figures, is the library in the basement. If she's quiet, she might even be able to take a peek at the study down there. Hiroomi has not yet returned home for the evening - that she knows of, anyway - so with Yakiimo on her shoulder, Mitsuki quietly hurries to staircase that will lead her down into the dark spaces under her manor.

Once she reaches the door in the basement, she nervously looks over her shoulder before raising her hand to unlock the cage. "Keep your ears open, Yakiimo," she says softly as she opens the door. It swings on its hinges soundlessly and then she's facing a vast room that smells like old books and old magic. Cautiously - she's only trying to be quiet, so quiet - she steps into the room and allows the door to swing shut behind her.

"Alright, Yakiimo," she says, petting the little youmu on her shoulder, "we're looking for anything that seems new or out of place. Think you can do that for me?"

He rubs his head against her hand in understanding and then leaps off of her, running through the shadows. Mitsuki follows him through the aisles of the bookcases, still being as quiet as she can despite thinking that she's absolutely alone in the basement. Her stomach jumps with nerves however when she spots the study door ajar, light pouring from the crack in the opening.

Hiroomi must have been down here before she even got home, she figures, sticking to the shadows as she approaches the door. But it's been hours. And he's been doing work since lunch time at school. A frown pulls at her mouth as she presses her back to the wall near the door and strains her ears. Yakiimo crawls back up to her shoulder.

There's a heavy sigh and the shuffling of papers, before he speaks. "You have yet to tell me exactly what you want me to do about this." He sounds tired, frustrated. Mitsuki's eyebrows furrow as another voice speaks - he must have his telephone on speaker.

It's a woman's voice, crisp and cold, like the first day of winter. "As I keep telling you, Nase-san, your family is not in good standing with those of us at the Society of Spirit World Warriors. There is too much suspicion surrounding your older sister."

He grits his teeth at the not so subtle accusation. "As if you have room to speak against my sister. Do you honestly expect me to believe that Miroku Fujima was only _posing_ under your name?"

The woman becomes disgruntled. "Do not speak down to me."

"Or what? The way I see it, you threaten me either way." He knows, anyway, that she is only saying that because he has hit the nail on the head. She's trying to divert his attention in the conversation. A small smile tugs at his mouth; she has said more than she meant to without ever saying anything at all.

She sighs heavily, though her voice remains icy. "Your cooperation is necessary."

"I'm not particularly interested in cooperating with the Society." _You're all corrupt_, he thinks venomously. He doesn't have the means to prove it yet, but that's why he's been so hard at work this past month. Hiroomi can't even trust his own leader - the man who lives here in the basement of his home.

"You don't want to make us your enemy, Nase-san." She's becoming angry now.

"And you don't want to make my family yours," he retaliates as calmly as he can. "If you'll excuse me, I have a pressing matter to take care of." Mitsuki hears the click of a button and then the phone line is disconnected and she stands there in the darkness, holding her breath.

"Mitsuki." Her brother's voice carries out from the crack in the door and she goes very still for a moment before cursing under her breath. It makes sense that he would realize she's there - he must have felt the ripple in the cage when she unlocked it to enter the library.

Steeling her expression, she opens the door and stands in the sudden pool of light. "Why didn't you tell me anything?" she asks harshly.

He's collapsed into a chair behind the desk and she thinks he looks more disheveled that she's ever seen him before. His scarf hangs loose around his neck, eyes tired yet full of fire. "With everything that's happened with Kuriyama-san lately, I didn't want to worry you further," he states.

She stares at him, frowning. "You failed at that."

A smile curls at the corners of his mouth and he laughs humorlessly. "I suppose I did."

Mitsuki steps further into the study until she is standing directly before the desk. "What do they want from us?"

He sighs. "I don't know yet."

She's frustrated by his short answers. "Are you sure it's okay for you to be talking to them like you were?"

Tiredly, he rubs a hand over his face and averts his eyes to the ceiling. He looks like he's contemplating on what to say to her and she hopes that he goes with the truth. What's the point of him covering anything up anymore, if she heard that last conversation between him and the Society anyway? "Mitsuki, I don't think Fujima was acting of his own accord when he came after Akkey. At least, not at first."

She blinks at him. "You think the Society is after Akihito?"

He returns his gaze to hers. "We have to be very careful, little sister. Trusting the Society at this point is out of the question."

"Don't you think we should tell Akihito?"

"He just got Kuriyama-san back. Akkey deserves some peace of mind for more than a week, don't you think?"

"Yes, but if he's in trouble. . ._Aniki_, he can't afford to be oblivious if the Society has intentions like Fujima did."

Hiroomi stares for a moment and then smiles into his scarf. "Right, as usual, I see. I'm proud to have such a smart little sister."

Ugh. She begins to pull her cell phone from her pocket, hearing the consent in her brother's voice.

::::

Mirai is very glad that she is alive. In fact, she is sure that she has never, ever been more glad that she is alive than she is in this moment as her eyes slide shut and Akihito's mouth presses against hers for the first time, very, very softly. They are sitting on his bed - its completely innocent, she swears! - their backs pressed against the wall, the croon of music playing on his iPod in the corner.

His thin fingers tangle in the short wave of her hair, her glasses skewing awkwardly as he presses himself closer. She trembles, reaching for the collar of his shirt so that she can hold onto something. Kissing him is everything she thought it would be and she thrills as he pulls away before kissing the corner of her mouth, her nose, her chin.

"Finally," she murmurs as he reaches for her glasses and plucks them from her face, setting them aside.

He grins and flattens his mouth against her cheek. "Finally," he agrees. Eagerly, she pulls him closer to her and wraps her arms around his neck .

"Don't ever make me wait like that again," she scolds lightly. "It's unpleasant."

He laughs and she can feel the vibrations of it in his chest. "Geez, go easy on me, Kuriyama."

"No," she says and kisses him. His hands run up and down the sides of her rib cage, underneath the cardigan she wears. "A-and you said you'd call me Mirai."

"Mirai," he answers, pressing his lips against hers hard. "Mirai." His hands curl around her waist. "Mirai."

She shivers and smiles into his mouth, blinking in surprise when he pulls away suddenly, his face distressed.

"Why are you crying?" he asks, reaching for her wet cheek.

Her hand presses to the other and feels the tears, abruptly aware of the tremor in her jaw. What can she say? She thinks that he needs to know how wonderful and essential he is, how much importance he holds in her life because he changed her. He made her see the beauty in living, the beauty in her blood and she doesn't know how to say that, so instead, she grabs his hand. "I'm just really happy," she whispers.

A grin splits across his face, relief in his coffee-stained eyes. "I'm happy too." He's just leaning back in to kiss her again when suddenly his phone vibrates in his pocket. Peculiar. Akihito rarely gets any calls, especially on Friday nights.

He frowns and pulls the cell from his pocket, raising an eyebrow at the number.

"Who is it?" Mirai asks, watching the expression on his face. She can't explain why, but she feels very anxious all of a sudden.

He turns to her, looking bewildered. "It's Mitsuki."


	4. Relocation

A/N: I know it's been a while since I updated! It was hard to figure out how to start the chapter haha and anyway, if you like the story, please let me know what you think? I get so nervous when I don't hear from anyone lol. Thank you very much for taking time to read this! i love you very much!

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Chapter 4

Relocation

"What are you doing right now?" Is the way Mitsuki answers when Akihito holds the phone to his ear. His eyebrows raise in surprise - it is a rare occasion when Mitsuki opens a conversation with him without teasing him as an introduction. Her voice sounds stressed, maybe even anxious, and it immediately causes a knot to form in his chest. Mirai looks on with wide eyes, studying his expression, her shoulder pressed to his.

"Why?" he says with a fair amount of confusion. "What's wrong?" That unsure lilt in her voice is not to be taken lightly. Kuriyama-san shifts beside him, leaning to get closer to the earpiece. He flashes a quick, unsteady smile her way before pressing the speaker button on his phone, allowing both of them to hear Mitsuki on the other end of the line.

The Nase girl hesitates. "Nothing's wrong."

"You don't sound so convinced," he replies. Mirai fidgets nervously beside him, sparing him a glasses-less glance that is just as uneasy as he feels.

"There is just something that my brother and I think you need to know," Mitsuki informs him after another pause. "You're alone, right?"

"Kuriyama-san is here," he says immediately.

"Oh, that's good," she answers with sincerity. "That saves trouble, then. Hello, Kuriyama-san."

"Hi, Mitsuki-senpai," Mirai replies, her voice squeaking slightly at the end. Her heat melts into him, making it hard to focus on the phone call, no matter how strange Mitsuki sounds over the line. Groaning inwardly at his excitable hormones, he pretends not to notice when the bespectacled beauty links her fingers through his over the back of his hand where it rests on the bed. "What did you have to tell Kanbara-senpai?"

Mitsuki wastes no time in diving into the matter; she's right, after all, Akihito needs to know this. "My brother and I think you might be in trouble with the Society."

It had only been a week since Mirai had returned to him - to them, all of them - but this wasn't as alarming as he thought it might be, in those nights he used to lay awake thinking about the monster inside of him. It's not really a surprise that the Society is wary of him - and that Miroku Fujima was indeed working under their orders. That's the only explanation for this, right? They're lying about that man to maintain face with the community of Spirit World Warriors in this area, Akihito realizes with bitterness. He wonders if Mirai's reappearance has made them restless.

"I see," he says after a moment of connecting those dots.

Mirai is still confused though, and her voice becomes tight and anxious. "What kind of trouble?"

Hiroomi's voice is the one that comes through the line this time. "The man after Akkey all those months ago was working for the Society. Because Miroku Fujima failed and ran away, I get the feeling that they'll try to obtain Akkey again."

Mirai goes silent, so Akihito squeezes her hand and replies, "Makes sense."

"We won't let that happen," Hiroomi says, in a softer voice, one that suddenly sounds very tired. "Of course. You're our responsibility. Even though the Calm has passed and you are invulnerable again, I would suggest being on your guard and trying your best to avoid being alone for extended periods of time. Mitsuki and I will get a room ready so that you can stay here until we can figure out what we are going to do about the Society."

As much as living with the Nases does not appeal to him, Akihito can't argue that it's the best chance he has at protecting others. If the Society got their hands on him, he isn't sure what they'd use him for, or what they'd do to him, but he doesn't have a doubt in his mind: someone would end up hurt. And he'll do everything he can to prevent that from ever happening.

"Thanks," Akihito murmurs. "I'll stay with Kuriyama-san tonight, to be on the safe side." After all, no one could protect him better than her with her blood swords anyway.

"You will?" she says, raising an eyebrow at him.

Hiroomi sounds as though he approves. "Good. We'll have a car by to pick up anything you want to pack around noon tomorrow." He hangs up on Akihito without so much as a goodbye, but that's how it's always been between them anyway. With a sigh, Akihito leans forward and places his phone on his night stand, a part of him wishing he'd never answered the call in the first place. The atmosphere between him and Mirai is tense now, colored with her anxiety, the nervous creases in her forehead.

"You don't mind spending the night, right?" he asks, turning to look at her.

She shakes her head immediately. "Of course not." He watches as she bites her lip and stares down at her lap, playing with her fingers. Pushing away the fear that touching her will make her disappear, he places a hand over hers and her eyes, wide and honey-colored, dart up to meet his softened gaze.

He allows himself to smile, willing the tension in the air to fade away. "Don't worry so much. We'll be okay."

She notes that he says 'we' instead of 'I' and her heart aches. "What makes you so sure?"

Akihito comes back to her side and presses his back to the wall, his shoulder against hers. He can feel her eyes on him as he tries to figure out how to word it right. "All I know is that, as long as we are together, we'll be okay." His hand works its way in between both of hers and she clasps onto it tightly. The place where her white bandage meets his skin his rough, but her fingers are soft, and the sliver of her ring is cold where it presses into him.

She nods at his words and brings the tangle of their hands to her mouth, brushes her lips softly over his knuckles, as if she has never considered the fact that his hands have been claws drenched in blood before. He shivers and leans a little closer to her, smelling her shampoo suddenly and his heart is so overcome with her that he can't imagine anyone loving someone as much as he loves her.

"I'll protect you," she whispers after a quiet moment.

The last time she protected him, he lost her for almost a whole half a year, but despite that, he smiles at the burning determination in her voice. So unlike the Kuriyama-san he met back in the spring. She's so much more confident in herself, so much more forgiving of who she is, and he is so glad that she accepts every part of herself, because he is in love with _all_ of her.

"Yes," he says ducking his head so that he can kiss her temple, her eyebrow, the bridge of her nose. "But let's keep the disappearing acts to a minimum, alright?"

She looks up at him, dropping their hands back into her lap, almost incredulous. "Did you just joke about that?"

He laughs as he extracts his hand from her hold and uses it to brush the hair back from her face. "Let's just focus on right now," he says as he slowly inclines his head. "Everything else can wait."

She rubs her bandaged hand back and forth gently over his raised forearm, her fingers curling into his wrist as he moves his hand down to her neck and tilts her head back. His eyebrows crease in sudden confusion and then he's smiling at her.

"You're crying again," he tells her, running his other hand along a newly tear-stained cheek.

Her lower lip trembles as she reaches up to wipe the tears away with the back of her hand, averting her gaze to his chest, forcing a smile. "I'm so happy. I just. . .I missed you a lot, A-Akihito."

She hasn't once mentioned what her days were like Beyond the Boundary, but they couldn't have been easy. Isolated there, with only a cheap imitation of him that couldn't even respond to her. It must have been hard, far harder than anything he dealt with in her absence. Tentatively, he reaches for her and rests his mouth between her eyes. "I missed you, too." More than I ever want to remember, he thinks painfully, pushing away every lonely second of the past two months before the tears can form.

She kisses him abruptly, severing all his thoughts so that the only thing he is sure about is Mirai. There is something decidedly more desperate about her mouth - it's still clumsy, but determined and rough despite how soft her lips are. Her brash fingers knot themselves in the cowlicks of his hair and pull him so that she is horizontal on the bed and he covers her chest with his. He hovers over her with his forearms supporting most of his weight as his eyes slide closed and he smiles widely against her mouth.

She kicks something when she begins to pull her knees up and Akihito breaks away marginally even though her hands are already pulling him back, her breath hot and wanting against his mouth.

"Come back," she breathes.

"You just kicked your glasses off the bed, Mirai," he tells her as she manages to press her lips against the corner of his mouth, her tongue running over his skin.

She continues to assault his mouth, feeling his resistance melt with every passing second. "If you are going to choose my glasses over me right now," she pants, "then maybe I need to reevaluate my choices."

He laughs heartily though a pained part of him strains to place her glasses safely on the end table. Still, when she slips her tongue against his mouth he begins to wonder what could ever be more important than kissing Mirai.

::::

Sakura is making her nervous. The Inami girl sits beside Mirai on railing outside of Akihito's apartment, the car the Nase siblings sent for him rumbling on the street. The two girls can hear the half-youmu boy as he flounders around his living space in search of the last few important items he'll need. Sakura keeps eyeing Mirai, and the bespectacled girl can't stop blushing.

"What?" she finally asks, turning to look at her friend.

"Did you sleep with Kanbara?" Sakura questions bluntly, her violet eyes boring into Mirai's. The spirit world warrior immediately turns red to the roots of her hair, gaping at Sakura with wide eyes.

"N-n-n-no!" she exclaims, trembling with embarrassment, hands wringing in the ends of her scarf. "Of c-c-course n-not! S-S-S-Senpai only k-kissed me!"

Sakura nods once, appeased. "It's about time."

"S-S-Sakura!"

"Time for what?" Akihito asks. He emerges from his apartment with his duffle bag slung over his shoulder, his hair looking ruffled and Mirai thinks it's unfair that someone so irritating can be so cute. The boy always had the best (or worst) timing, depending on the situation.

Sakura slides from the railing and fixes her coat. "Time for you and me to have a talk."

Akihito gives her an easy smile and agrees to meet Sakura later after settling in at the Nase manor, completely oblivious to Mirai's frantic and flustered facial expressions.

"I'm going to meet Ai-chan for lunch," Sakura says. "I expect a call later, Kanbara."

He nods at her as Mirai slips from the railing herself, steadying her feet against the concrete, slippery with slush from the salt and the snow. "Sure, Inami-san," Akihito replies graciously. The brown-haired girl gracefully descends the stairs and continues her trek onto the Shindous' shop. He turns to Mirai and raises an eyebrow at her as he motions for her to start down the staircase. "What was that all about?"

Her blush still hasn't faded, but her face feels hot again. "I-I'm n-n-not quite sure," she replies uneasily, positive that Sakura is going to utterly embarrass her with whatever it is she wants to talk to Akihito about.

"Alright." He opens the back door of the waiting car and throws his bag inside. "You sure you want to come?"

She scoffs at him and slides in. "I happen to like Mitsuki-senpai and Hiroomi-senpai."

Akihito grins because he's glad. "Fine." He slips in after her and shuts the door behind him. Both Mirai and Akihito thank the driver with gracious bows of the head as the woman pulls the vehicle away from the snowy curb and begins the drive to the Nase manor. Akihito takes his bespectacled beauty's mitten-clothed hand into his and rests it on his lap, smiling into his own scarf.


	5. Weight

A/N: I don't own knk! If any of you recognize that last chunk of the chapter at the bottom, it's because I used another fic I wrote and added it in since it's exactly the same kind of scene I wanted anyway haha. Just a heads up!

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Chapter 5

Weight

Akihito arrives at the little cafe early, partly because he liked to spend as much time out of the Nase manor as he can manage, and partly because even though he can tentatively call Sakura a friend, he still wants to make a good impression on her. He's a little uneasy - it'd been a week since he'd left his apartment and Sakura had been expecting a call from him. The Inami girl is entirely too unpredictable for him to gauge what she wants to talk about, though he has an inkling.

After all, the only thing they have in common is Kuriyama-san.

He taps his foot absently against the floor while he waits, debating whether or not to order something to eat or wait until Sakura arrives. Fortunately, his decision is made when a violet-eyed girl walks through the door of the restaurant and zeros her gaze in on him. He grins easily at her despite her straight face, and waves her over.

"You're here early, Kanbara," she says as slips her bag from her shoulder and rests it against the table.

"You try living with the sadistic Nase princess and her perverted brother, and then you will understand," he tells her cheekily. He tries not to sound eager or interested, but fails miserably. "How is Kuriyama-san today?"

Sakura takes her chair and turns her sharp gaze on him. "I haven't seen her; she's been out hunting youmu all morning, and then she has a shift to work with Ayaka-san's shop."

He nods and keeps his smile to himself. Such a hard-working girl and yet she still struggles to afford living every month. Without even realizing it, he's very proud of her for the way she persists. If there's one thing in the world that Kuriyama Mirai is perpetually guilty of, it's her stubbornness.

Sakura shifts in her chair. "I know you said you didn't want her to find out about you paying rent on her apartment," she says, a little awkwardly, still completely straightforward about it, though. "I'm sorry I let it slip."

Akihito waves the apology away. "It's alright. Not that big of a deal, after all, since she doesn't insist as though she owes me anything. What did you want to talk about, anyway?" He knew that the subject would be Mirai - with Sakura, it always was. Even when the bespectacled beauty had been lost to all of them, Akihito would pay visits to her apartment to check on Sakura. He'd bring a meal; they'd eat together in silence, and then he'd stay with her for a few hours.

They never said much when he visited - he'd read a book and Sakura would watch TV on the small television set she managed to find at a rummage sale of sorts shortly before Mirai disappeared the first time. The silence between Akihito and Sakura was never thick or heavy with awkwardness, but a sense of understanding and often times, sorrow. She didn't quite get his situation in life the way Mirai did, but Sakura had lost everything that had meant anything to her, much as Akihito had. Their mutual perception of each other was the only thing that kept him sane half the time - Sakura was a blatant reminder that Mirai had existed, for however short a time.

While others would go on with life as though it was all the same, Sakura was stuck in the same rut as him. Missing Mirai. The peach-haired Spirit World Warrior had brought a semblance of meaning to both their lives, had impacted both of them more than either of them realized until she was gone for good. Being with Sakura on those empty nights made everything seem real, even if it had been painful.

After spending those few hours with her, he would go back home to his apartment and toss back a dose of drowsy cough medicine so that he would be sure to get sleep before school in the morning. It was often on those nights that he had the dreams of Mirai in a white sundress, a flower in her hair. Her warmth was almost real when he was asleep. Probably because - he now knew - that they weren't just dreams, and that it had truly been Mirai that laid there in the grass under a blue, blue sky.

"I want to talk about your relationship with Mirai," Sakura says bluntly, bringing Akihito back into the present.

The tips of his ears feel hot. "Eh? What about it?"

Her gaze burns into him. "What is she to you?"

He breaks eye contact and turns his stare to the table top. His heart turns over in his chest, and he feels so warm, thinking about Kuriyama-san. A good kind of warm. Tentatively, he runs his tongue of his bottom lip. "She's everything." It feels good to say it out loud to someone who isn't Mirai. It's as if it holds more merit, that what he feels is _real_.

Sakura folds her hands on her lap and takes a breath. "Good. You're really important to her, Kanbara, and I'm glad that she has you. You're really good for her."

Why does he feel embarrassed all of a sudden? He can't hide the blush on his face. "Ahh."

"However, you are both still just high school students," she continues unexpectedly and Akihito's stomach clenches as the blush spreads down the column of his neck, getting a feeling about what she's talking about. "And I know that you as a boy have raging hormones at this point in your life. Mirai is a fifteen year old girl - she's got urges too. But I don't think either one of you is quite ready for sex yet."

"S-Sakura-san," Akihito stutters, staring at her with wide eyes.

"You're definitely not ready to be parents." She nods her head and it amazes him that she seems completely unperturbed by this conversation, even though he's sure he resembles the complexion of a tomato. "If you absolutely cannot help yourselves, remember to use a condom. That's the most important thing you can take away from this conversation."

"Inami-san," he says again, clearing his throat, struggling to swallow his embarrassment. "Your concern for us is appreciated and I will take it to heart."

She blinks and then cracks an unexpected smile before laughing into her hand. He stares - he didn't know that Sakura _could_ laugh.

"You're a weird one, Kanbara." She bows her head, hiding the amusement on her usually stoic face. "Please continue to take care of Mirai."

"To the very best of my abilities," he promises, grinning as he scratches at the back of his neck, willing his blush to disappear.

::::

It's another Monday morning. Akihito wakes up in a bed that does not belong to him and looks out a window that gives him a clear view of the lake that sits on the Nases' property. He feels unsettled - for the past week, he's been waking up with a lead weight in his stomach and a strange itch under his skin. He chalks it all up to the knowledge that the Society is probably calculating a way to get to him, but deep down, he's not so sure that's the case. He doesn't honestly know what to make of the feeling.

Reaching for his phone, he shoots Mirai a quick, anxious text - he suspects even a year from now, he'll need reassurance that she didn't just disappear overnight - and allows his face to relax into a smile when she responds with a simple "I'll see you at school." Dropping the phone back onto the pillow next to him he slowly takes in his surroundings.

He doesn't know if he'll get used to waking up in a guest room at the Nase manor. The entire room itself is larger than his whole apartment - the window with a view, a desk in the corner where his book bag sits, a queen-sized bed that is soft and agreeable under him. The walls are a gentle cream color, and as suspected with its size, the room feels cold and holds nothing of personal taste or value. It's a reoccurring theme in the Nase mansion. He sighs and rolls out of the bed to get dressed for school.

There's a knock on his door as he is pulling on his button up shirt, his tie hanging loose and untied around his neck. "Yeah?" he responds.

The door swings open, Mitsuki standing there with her hand on the knob. She stares and then blinks before scowling. "Put on a shirt, pervert."

"Hey, what's it look like I'm doing?" he insists with furrowed eyebrows, feeling the unsettled weight inside of him turn hot, making him suddenly irritable. "Besides, you're the one who just burst in here without so much as a warning. You're the pervert here."

"Don't associate me with your kind," she sniffs before closing the door behind her and crossing the room to sit on the desk chair by the window. "Pervert."

He swallows the urge to fight back and turns around to face a wall, finishing the last few buttons of his shirt. "What do you want, anyway?"

She doesn't respond right away, instead staring out at the placid lake, still frozen around the edges, the gray clouds rolling in from the distance. "I just have a bad feeling." Yakiimo emerges from her shirt to sit on the window sill, and she runs her fingers through the youmu's fur absently.

"So you came to see me?" Akihito turns back around, no longer feeling annoyed, his fingers deftly working on his tie.

She continues to stare hard out the window and Akihito suddenly wishes that he hadn't sounded so blunt or harsh - Mitsuki may drive him crazy, but. . .until he started living here, he had no idea just how lonely such a big house could be. Especially since Hiroomi makes himself scarce a majority of the time, busy with Spirit World things that he refuses to enlighten his sister with. Mitsuki came to see Akihito because she didn't have anyone else _to_ turn to.

"Do you feel it too?" she asks emotionlessly as Yakiimo nudges her hand.

He thinks for a moment as he pulls his sweater on over his head and adjusts the sleeves, feeling the weight in his stomach and the strange, thickness under the surface of his skin. "I suppose I do."

"It makes me uneasy," she admits, finally turning to face him. "I wish _Aniki_ wouldn't keep so much to himself."

Akihito understands where she's coming from. Mirai had kept many secrets that ended up being the catalyst to separating them for several months. "I could try to talk to him," he says in a voice that's abnormally soft for a conversation with Mitsuki.

Her eyes appraise him skeptically before she rises and allows Yakiimo to crawl to her shoulder. "It couldn't hurt. Though, I won't place my hopes on you."

He rolls his eyes as he grabs his bag and follows her out the door. "You're faith in me is reassuring."

"And your sarcasm is a failed attempt at masking your insecurities and despair that you shall never be able to measure up to my status," she replies in a snarky manner that he's come to expect. The annoyance vibrates under his skin again, thought it feels so much stronger than he thinks it should. "Let's eat breakfast, pervert."

::::

"Mirai, there's an upperclassman looking at you," a girl named Nanami whispers, nudging Mirai with her elbow. The classmate had always been friendly with Mirai, even picking up conversation again with her despite Kuriyama mysteriously reappearing two weeks ago after several weeks' of unexplained absence. Hiroomi had pulled some strings on that one; she was back in school and no one asked any questions.

Mirai glances up from where her hands are shoving books into her bag to see a boy with a head full of blonde cowlicks and a smile that rivals the sun. He leans against the wall just outside her classroom with his hands in his pockets, eyes zeroed in on her bespectacled face. Something about his temperament has been weird the past few days, but right now he looks the same as ever.

"I suppose there is," she says, smiling at him from across the room, fighting back a blush. He makes everything so obvious, she thinks, and if it wasn't so endearing, the embarrassment would be overwhelming.

Sakura sits on her desk and crosses her ankles, looking disinterested. "Kanbara is Mirai's boyfriend."

"Sakura!" Mirai exclaims, giving into the heat on her face. Nanami's mouth pops open in surprise and one of the other girls cleaning up her supplies for the day migrates towards them curiously.

"Unofficially," Sakura reiterates in a completely blasé tone.

"Unofficially?!" Nanami leans towards Mirai with an awed expression. "What does that mean?!"

Mirai closes her bag and reaches for the glasses on her nose, wiping the lenses furiously. Through her blurry vision, she can make out the subject of their conversation peering on expectantly as if to say _yes, Kuriyama-san, what does that mean? _She puckers her lips in a fit of brief outrage (he has no right to look so amused!) and then slips the lenses back onto her face.

"It means he hasn't asked me to be his girlfriend," Mirai informs them with a flutter of satisfaction and hopefulness.

Unaware that the conversation was reaching so many ears, nearly half of the students still in the classroom look toward the doorway where Akihito leans, stock still, absolutely surprised. He's quick under pressure though, and shameless enough to recover quickly. His smile is back in full force and he raises a hand to beckon to her.

Sakura slides from the desk and pushes pink-cheeked Mirai toward the door.

"Sakura!"

"I want to go home," Sakura replies, though after their meeting on Sunday, Mirai is certain that the Inami girl and Senpai have some sort of conspiracy theory to embarrass her as much as possible. If only she knew exactly what it was that they talked about.

Akihito smirks as he takes her hand once she's in reaching distance and pulls her into his chest. Sakura salutes him and tightens her grip on her school bag. "I leave her in your care, Kanbara."

He grins at her over the tangle of Mirai's strawberry hair, who cringes against him, her face burning, still feeling the eyes of the lingering students on her. "I'll see to it she gets home safe and sound, Inami-san."

The violet-eyed girl pulls a bag of pretzels from a pocket in her sack. "Your home or the Nases'?"

He laughs, but is helpless to the heat that rises up his neck, unable to find his blase footing since her embarrassing conversation with him about sex and Kuriyama-san. Sakura always had a way of flustering him, but she's honest and cuts to the chase, and he's used to this sort of teasing since he is bombarded by Mitsuki day in and day out. "She'll text you," he says shyly.

"S-S-Senpai!" Mirai exclaims, drawing herself away from him, glowing brightly with embarrassment.

Sakura merely opens her pretzel bag and begins to snack as she walks away. "M'kay."

Akihito glances to the side to see that they are still being ogled and smiles nervously at the first years before taking Mirai's hand and pulling her down the hall toward their club room. She stares at the floor, her heart pounding in her chest as her curtain of hair shields her face, which matches the red of her glasses.

When he speaks, his voice is low and soft, something tender and fragile and her breath seizes because she is falling in love with him all over again when he talks like this. "I didn't think you cared about trivial titles like boyfriend and girlfriend, Mirai."

"T-t-trivial titles?" she stammers, her eyes darting up to look at him. He pulls her around a corner and then her back is pressed to the wall and he's leaning over her.

His expression is nervous, eyes warm like coffee and her hand tightens over the strap of her bag. "I was under the impression we were much more than that," he says gently, anxiously.

She swallows loudly, peering up through the lenses of her glasses. Her eyes are like sundrops, he thinks, and he is blinded as the light pours from her.

"But," he continues, struggling to find words under the intensity of her gaze, "but I'll call you my girlfriend, if you'd like."

She has to admit, there is something both strange and thrilling about referring to Akihito as her boyfriend. "O-okay," she whispers. She wants to say something snarky and teasing to focus on something other than how fast her heart is beating, but she is frozen where he corners her against the wall and his mouth looks _so_ soft and warm. . .

"Okay?" he suddenly looks amused. "That's all you have to say?"

She breaks her gaze from his mouth and turns it to his coffee-eyes, furrowing her eyebrows. "What do you want me to say?"

"I don't know, 'Oh yes, Akihito! Take me! Call me your girlfriend! I'm the luckiest girl in the world!'" He winks at her. "That would be nice."

She raises an eyebrow to try and hide the fact her blush rivals that of a stop sign. "That would also be horrifying." She pokes at his chest. "You're a creepy senpai with a thing for glasses. Hardly a catch."

"You are the one that caught me, idiot."

She puts on a troubled mask. "What in the world was I thinking?"

He furrows his eyebrows, his expression turning unexpectedly distressed. "Having second thoughts?"

Mirai drops the mask and stares, reaching up to carefully place her hand against his cheek, feeling wary of the sudden change in his demeanor. He _always_ knew when she was teasing him. "Akihito, I gave up everything to protect you. You're hardly someone I would have second thoughts about."

His face goes blank for a moment and then he shakes his head, running a hand through his hair before massaging the back of his neck. "Right. Sorry, I knew that."

Her stomach twists uneasily. "Are you okay? You've been acting kind of strange lately."

He stares at her and then smiles a smile that is perfectly him. "I'm fine! Honestly. Let's get to the club room, yeah? Mitsuki will accuse me of dragging you off into the shadows and doing impure things if we take too long."

"Well you are my b-boyfriend," she says, internally cursing herself for stuttering over the word. "She's right to suspect you of being indecent."

He takes her hand and pulls her down the hall. "Is that an invitation, Kuriyama?"

She hums to give him a vague response, but her stomach still feels unsettled by the strange switch in his personality moments ago. Mirai decides to do her best to shake it off, certain that nothing out of the ordinary was wrong. Perhaps he didn't sleep very well - yeah, she'd chalk it up to that.

She could tell herself whatever she wanted, but even as she smiled and swung their intertwined hands between them, the weight in her stomach did not disappear.

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A/N: Hey! Sorry it's been a while since I updated! I just get really busy and stuff, but even if there are only two of you reading this fic, I'm determined to see it through. I'd be excited to know what you're thinking so far! We're finally starting to get to the real issues of the fic and I'm pumped about this tbh.

Thank you so much for reading!


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